Current Affairs Quiz-September, 2020

Notes:
The Union Cabinet has approved the Foreign direct investment (FDI) limit in the Defence Sector through automatic approval to 74 per cent.
Earlier, the policy allowed 49 per cent FDI in Defence Sector. The new policy has a ‘National Security’ clause as a condition, that has been proposed by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. The Government has the right to review any foreign investment that may affect national security.

Notes:
Former World Number 1 Women Tennis player Serena Williams has entered the US Open 2020 semi-finals.
With this, the Tennis Legend has entered semi-finals in US Open for eleven times in a row. Serena, who is 38 years old, has won 23 Grand Slam singles titles including six US Open. She was the runner-up in US Open four times.

Notes:
The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) has recently released the States’ Start-up Ranking Framework 2019.
As per the ranking, Gujarat has been named as the best performer among states and Andaman & Nicobar Islands has been named as the best performer in the category of Union Territory. Karnataka and Kerala emerged as the Top performers. The framework is based on 7 broad reform areas.

Notes:
Global rating agency Moody’s Investors Service has estimated that India’s real GDP would contract by 11.5 per cent in fiscal year 2020-21.
Earlier, the agency has estimated that India’s economy would contract by 4.0 per cent during 2020-21. CRISIL also said that the collapse in GDP was one of the sharpest among all major G-20 nation and the growth is expected to rebound to 10.6 per cent in 2021-22.

Notes:
Union External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar virtually addressed the inaugural session of the intra-Afghan talks, being held in Doha.
Earlier this week, the Minister had visited Iran and discussed the Chabahar port project and the situation in Afghanistan. The Defence Minister also met his counterpart in Iran. India had earlier attended the signing of the US-Taliban pact on February 29.

Notes:
A joint statement has been issued by USA, Israel and Bahrain which states that Israel and Bahrain have agreed to establish full diplomatic ties.
This is an outcome of a normalisation agreement between Israel and Bahrain which comes after a similar agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Earlier, an Israeli delegation was carried in the first direct commercial flight to UAE.

Notes:
The procurement of Rice for the Kharif Crop Season of year 2020-21 is estimated at 495.37 lakh tonnes.
This estimate has been made by the Ministry of Food and Public Distribution. This estimate is 19.07 % more than the procurement estimates for 2019-20 marketing season. The actual procurement of rice in 2019-20 was the highest at 420.22 lakh tones.

Notes:
The Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India has banned the export of all varieties of onions, except for those in cut, sliced or in powder form.
This has been done to increase the supply of onion in the county and to bring down its market price. The provision under Section 3 of Foreign Trade (Development and Regulation) Act, 1992 is used by the ministry in this regard.

Notes:
The World Trade Organization (WTO) has ruled that tariff barriers (additional tariffs) imposed by USA in 2018 on Chinese goods is inconsistent with international trading norms.
This has come as a severe blow to the US administration. The ruling was pronounced by a 3-member panel of WTO, against the USD 200 billion in levies imposed by USA on a range of Chinese goods in 2018.

Notes:
The 36th National Games was scheduled to organised at Goa from October 20, 2020 to November 4, 2020.
The Sports Ministry had postponed the National games, due to outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. The Chief Minister of Goa earlier announced that five months will be required after announcement of dates, to purchase required sports equipment.